Me losing my cartridge with a town from 2013 at a bank in 2017 was my first encounter with the feeling known as grief. Anyway, I'm currently replaying this game 10 years after the game's North American launch. It feels so good to come back to an entry that has stuff to do and characters with more than three lines of dialogue.
It's your typical Animal Crossing gameplay loop. You get on for like 15 minutes at least once a day to do stuff exclusive to that time of day, and you keep doing that over and over throughout the year to experience everything the game has to offer. It's the kind of game you play to relax and take a break from other, faster games. Catching fish and bugs, customizing your house and character, the usual.
The game's main gimmick is that you are the mayor. As that person, you're responsible for turning the place into a "perfect town" by enacting ordinances and starting public works projects that range from bridges to new buildings and other functional stuff. Effectively, you have limited customization over the outdoors, even if it is a bit limited.
Welcome Amiibo, the expansion released in 2016 that adds amiibo functionality, a new currency, and some very cool crossover stuff with The Legend of Zelda and Splatoon. Not too big of an impact, but still very cool that they actually updated the game three years after launch.
I love this game, if it wasn't apparent already. I love checking in on these lines of code as if they're longtime friends. I love chilling on the island, both alone and online, even if the latter appears to be rampant with hackers (I've only encountered one on my only online visit so it's pretty much 100%), to get the rare bugs and fish. I love watching this town of mine grow over days and weeks and months and years of continuously checking in.
Ten-year-old me was enamored with this game. Twenty-year-old me is enamored even more. Having a sequel that strips the personality and exposed the franchise to the mainstream does that to a guy.
It's your typical Animal Crossing gameplay loop. You get on for like 15 minutes at least once a day to do stuff exclusive to that time of day, and you keep doing that over and over throughout the year to experience everything the game has to offer. It's the kind of game you play to relax and take a break from other, faster games. Catching fish and bugs, customizing your house and character, the usual.
The game's main gimmick is that you are the mayor. As that person, you're responsible for turning the place into a "perfect town" by enacting ordinances and starting public works projects that range from bridges to new buildings and other functional stuff. Effectively, you have limited customization over the outdoors, even if it is a bit limited.
Welcome Amiibo, the expansion released in 2016 that adds amiibo functionality, a new currency, and some very cool crossover stuff with The Legend of Zelda and Splatoon. Not too big of an impact, but still very cool that they actually updated the game three years after launch.
I love this game, if it wasn't apparent already. I love checking in on these lines of code as if they're longtime friends. I love chilling on the island, both alone and online, even if the latter appears to be rampant with hackers (I've only encountered one on my only online visit so it's pretty much 100%), to get the rare bugs and fish. I love watching this town of mine grow over days and weeks and months and years of continuously checking in.
Ten-year-old me was enamored with this game. Twenty-year-old me is enamored even more. Having a sequel that strips the personality and exposed the franchise to the mainstream does that to a guy.